Just One Mistake
by Converse r life
Summary: Marina hated to admit it, but she felt bad for Ariel.


"Ari-elle, your fadder said 'no'." The strict, accent laced voice came out reprimanding and harsh. The young, bright red haired teen gave a defeated sigh, and looked down at her green fins.

"Yes sir." A quieter voice answered, the owner of the voice letting her shoulders sag in defeat before letting her entire face fall. The girl swam back towards her spot with her six older sisters, her spirit momentarily crushed under the strict words.

Marina hated to admit it, but she felt bad for Ariel.

From the corner of her eye, the girl's governess did her best not to glare at Sebastian, before she looked back at Ariel, hurt and withdrawn in the back line with her sisters. After all, Marina reasoned, the child was only fifteen. She still had a long way to go in life, and her chipper attitude was already starting to be broken down by the one person who should be building it up. Her father.

Marina valued her position and future promotion to well to say anything aloud, but in her mind, she could say exactly how she felt. And she did. She cursed, mentally, at King Triton. The fool. Oh, he was a great king, there was no doubt. But as a father, he failed miserably.

She'd been all the girls' governess for a few years now, and though they had never, and probably would never need her, she felt a bit of an attachment to these girls. Nothing to brag about, nothing that she'd ever admit to even when talking to Benjamin, but she felt sort of like a much older, much more estranged sister to these seven girls.

She knew Aquata had a secret cookie addiction. She knew Attina loved to hum an old lullaby to herself that her mother had once sung to her when she was absolutely, positively, undeniably alone. She knew that Alana's first kiss had been with a boy named Tide when she was fourteen. She knew Arista idolized her older sister Aquata, and that's why she took her things so often, though she'd never admit to it. She knew that Adella had a bit-on-the-smutty-side romance novel hidden under her pillow. She knew Andrina worried that her bit-on-the-nasal-side voice put off boys. And she knew that Ariel was much more than she appeared to be.

Yes, Marina knew more about these girls' than they thought she did. The girls thought she'd only taken the job as their governess to promote her own career. And they were right. She did, and she was planning to bump Sebastian off as soon as she could. But that didn't mean that she had no feelings for these girls.

Though she only let a sympathetic look briefly fill her features towards Ariel, Marina did truly hurt for this child. After all, she'd been, what, five, when her mother died? She probably couldn't even remember the time before when laughter and joy had been the basis of her father's life, instead of this solemn, emotionally detached man that used a small crab to put to rest his youngest daughter's request.

Of course, these feelings of momentary hurt from Marina towards Ariel changed nothing, of course. She still thought the girl was far too headstrong and that this chipper, optimistic spirit of hers had to be crushed. The word was a cruel place; the sooner Ariel learned that, the better.

"Nice job." Attina's muttered voice rang out quietly to her youngest sister, the sarcasm behind it implying that the girl had just done a bad thing. Ariel's head lowered even further, her blue eyes hurt and ashamed.

Marina grimaced slightly, almost unnoticeably. What had Ariel done that was so wrong? The child would never know by _not _asking. She wanted to liven things up, do something different than their daily routine…and now, she was being scolded for it. It made no sense to the governess. It was just one mistake, a teeny tiny mistake that the child had made by proposing her question the way she did. That was her only crime. She should have chosen a better way to ask her father the question, hide the real purpose of the trip to the reef behind a tiny white lie. That was her only mistake. And yet, here Ariel was, being treated as though she'd done something much more horrible.

Briefly, Marina wondered about the late queen Athena. What would she have done if she'd have been in the governess's place? Would she have stood by and watched the young girl's hopes dashed in an instant by the king, or would she have stood up and done something about it? Probably the latter. It was well known that the late queen had always had quite a feisty attitude and wouldn't tolerate any sort of unfairness in her kingdom.

Yet, as Marina thought these thoughts, she knew she'd never say a word about what just happened. She'd shrug it off later, thinking that it was just another stupid thing on the princess's part. She desperately wanted to be chief of staff, to be able to be the king's right hand woman, and to give those spoiled princesses a taste of their own medicine.

But in her heart, and in her mind, she knew that it was unfair. She knew that Ariel, who was so young and innocent, didn't deserve a harsh reprimand for just asking a simple question. She knew the girl was headstrong, insubordinate, and a constant sea urchin in her side, but she still felt it, deep within her heart. Pity. For the child to have to grow up in such a depressing environment, for the child to have to realize now, at only fifteen years of age, that life was often unfair and mean.

These thoughts would never make it out of Marina's mind, the governess was sure of that, but she didn't care. The girls may thought she was a miserable spinster that was forced to watch over them, make their lives as bad as possible, and had absolutely no heart for any of them. They could think that for as long as they wanted. But she, Marina knew far better than they did.

She had a heart…she just kept it hidden.

* * *

**This is an apology one shot for all of you who still read my stories. D; I know i've been horrible as of late with not updating, so I really thought as an apology to all my loyal readers, that I'd post this up. Besides, the idea had been floating around in my head forever. What gave me the inspiration to write this out was in that early scene in TLM 3, when Ariel is asking Triton to go for a swim on the reef, blah blah blah, she's rejected, and then she swims back in line with her sisters. For a split second, you see Marina gave a sort of annoyed look at the King and Sebastian, and then look with symptathy back at Ariel. And then I realized that Marina wasn't as power-hungry and completely I-don't-like-you to all the girls, I mean, she couldn't be. So I started writing this out...and I know it's kind of short, but I think I managed to capture that scene. And, plus, there aren't many stories about Marina. :) Please review and tell me if you liked or disliked it! **


End file.
